* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.

Notes

Government at election: Although the Australian Labor Party under Premier Rann won a majority of seats at the previous election (2006), Rann and the Labor Party parliamentary members (the Labor caucus) chose to keep the reelected Independent member Rory McEwen and National Party member Karlene Maywald as ministers in the government under the same conditions negotiated at the time when these two non-Labor Party members originally joined the government in 2002 and 2004 (see note to 2006 House of Assembly) elections. As a result of this arrangement, Rann continued as premier of an Australian Labor Party, Independent and National Party coalition government until 2 March 2009 when McEwen left the ministry.

Government after election: After a closely contested election, the Rann Australian Labor Party government was returned with a majority of seats even though it won fewer first preference votes than the Liberal Party, and a new ministry was sworn in on 25 March 2010.

Australian Labor Party and Country Labor: The Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) registered the party name Country Labor Party in 1999. Eleven of the 47 Labor Party candidates at this election (2010) were fielded under the name 'Country Labor' in non-metropolitan electoral districts. These candidates won 52,209 votes (14.21 percent) of the total Australian Labor Party vote shown in the table above.

Independents: Twenty-two of the 253 candidates who ran for office at this election (2010) did so without any party affiliation and are listed as Independents in the table above. Of these 22 Independents, 16 linked the label 'Independent' with some other description or policy preference including one Independent Liberal. Three Independent candidates were elected to the House of Assembly; Geoffrey Brock (Frome), Don Pegler, (Mount Gambier), and Bob Such (Fisher).

Gamers 4 Croydon: This party grouping (abbreviation G4C) was formed to campaign against restrictions on video games.

FREE Australia Party: The registered full name of this party grouping was Freedom, Rights, Environment, Educate Australia Party.

References: For a survey of the election and its context, see Hayden Manning and Geoff Anderson, 'The 2010 South Australian State Election', Australian Journal of Political Science, 46 (1) March 2011: 157-166.